William B. Taliaferro

William Booth Taliaferro (28 December 1822-27 February 1898) was a Major-General of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Biography
William Booth Taliaferro was born in Gloucester County, Virginia, United States on 28 December 1822 to a family of Italian-English descent; the family traces back to Bartholomew Taliaferro, a native of the Republic of Venice who settled in London, England in 1562. Taliaferro, also a nephew of Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon, graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1841 and served in the US Army during the Mexican-American War. After the war, Taliaferro served in the Virginia House of Delegates as a Democratic Party member, and he commanded Virginia militia during John Brown's 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. On 18 April 1861, as a Virginia militia commander, he was sent to take command at Norfolk, and he led the 23rd Virginia Infantry as a colonel. He was wounded at Second Bull Run during the American Civil War, and he also fought at Fredericksburg; his troops hated him for being strict and aloof, and they even assaulted him on one occasion. After Fredericksburg, he commanded the District of Savannah in Georgia, winning the Second Battle of Fort Wagner on 18 July 1863. In 1864, he was given command of the Eastern District of Florida, and he returned to South Carolina after winning at Olustee in February 1864. Taliaferro surrendered to the Union army in 1865 after commanding all Confederate troops in South Carolina, and he served in the state legislature after the war's end. He died in Gloucester County on 27 February 1898 at the age of 75.